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The Hollywood star tells Jane Mulkerrins why her role in Westworld gave her the strength to speak about her rape and sexual abuse in front of Congress

On a recent afternoon, Evan Rachel Wood was driving through Los Angeles when she suffered what she calls an “existential crisis… I suddenly looked around and thought, none of this is real,” she says. “Everything is programming.”

Wood motions towards the window of the hotel chosen for our interview; beyond the glass stretch the manicured lawns and pristine façades of Beverly Hills.

“We call this the real world but it’s just the world we’ve all agreed to live in together,” she says. “We live in an environment that’s controlled and highly curated....